Important
Important (インポータント, Inpōtanto) is chapter 28 of the ǝnígmǝ manga. Summary The three are happy to have found Password No. 6, "A24". Sumio praises and hugs Sudō, whom immediately scolds him and pushes him away. Hiina merely smiles at the two messing around. She checks if they're actually done, to which Sumio claims so and recalls how tough the challenge was. Seeing Sumio and Hiina smile, Sudō starts to apologize for not knowing about his own Talent earlier and saving them all earlier. The two are surprised at this as Sudō claims his scar always used to bleed since a long time ago, but did not reverse time on objects up until their time together in the e-test. Thinking over the fact that Sudō was unaware of his own power, he believes that ǝnígmǝ may have awakened it with the password problem. He then wonders how ǝnígmǝ knew of Sudō's power while Sudō himself didn't. Meanwhile, Hiina notices the monitors still rewinding after their conversation. Hiina wonders who the person is who would want to watch those monitors and why. Sumio, considering how the "Unleavable Room" is a different part of the school, now believes that ǝnígmǝ was in the room. Suddenly, ǝnígmǝ, over the room's PA system, congratulates the three on completing their challenge and instructs them to exit the room within 30 seconds via an elevator opening its doors. Sumio is disappointed that he can't investigate the monitor room any further, but reluctantly steps into the elevator anyways with Sudō and Hiina. The elevator doors close and the three are taken away from the monitor room. Just after the doors close, a garbled figure of Yūta Kijima appears on the monitors with a distorted face. Exhausted, Hiina comments on how long they took, while Sumio reflects on how worried everyone else may be. They both fall asleep. Sudō, about to fall sleep, reflects in his mind how Kijima made him angry and yet somehow, he thinks his desire will come true since he now has a Talent. Falling asleep too, he accidentally drops his Reward note from ǝnígmǝ, revealing it to say Ami Yumikawa's Rescue (弓川あみの救出, Yumikawa Ami no kyūshutsu). A flashback from three years prior to the main storyline reveals Sudō's past relationship with Ami Yumikawa. In the fall, Sudō is in his first year in high school, sleeping in an infirmary bed among many novels and an MP3 player. He is woken up by a woman whom asks how he is feeling with his back and if he is okay. Among the novels on Sudō's bed are The Brothers Karamazov and The Catcher in the Rye. The woman, Ami Yumikawa, is introduced as Yūyami High School's school nurse, the only person in the school who knows of his scar and the abuse he went through. She tells Sudō that he is free to visit the infirmary when he is hurting, but tells him she'd rather not see any injuries from fights. Frowning at her, Sudō claims she looks after him a bit too much and calls her a giant woman, although Sudō is 188cm tall while Yumikawa is 177cm tall. Playfully, Yumikawa agrees that she shouldn't be saying things like that. It is revealed that in those days, from his history of abuse, Sudō came to hate irrationality, getting angry and fighting when delinquents force him to yield to them. At one point, Sudō was close to dropping out of school, but Yumikawa volunteered to defend him, risking herself getting fired. Not able to understand why she did this, Sudō asked her. Yumikawa answers by claiming school is where he can find "important things" and that she cannot let him drop out without finding someone to trust and protect. Without noticing over time, Sudō actually began to trust her more. It is revealed that apart from Sudō, there was one other regular visitor to the school infirmary. Bursting into the infirmary with a modest, smiling face, Kijima apologizes to Yumikawa for falling again and getting hurt. Seeing Yumikawa accompany Kijima, Sudō comments that he seems lovestruck. Putting his hand over Sudō's shoulder with a jolly face, Kijima greets him and playfully asks why he's not playing softball, or softball with the girls. Irritated, Sudō brushes his hand off and tells him to shut up and not touch him, flattering Yumikawa. Yūta Kijima, 24 years old at the time, is revealed to be a Japanese teacher who is also the advisor for the girls' softball club. With bright zeal and a bit of carelessness, he became a popular teacher. Despite all this, however, Sudō hated him. One reason for this was because he only came for Yumikawa. In a conversation between Kijima and Yumikawa, his other reason is revealed. Kijima asks how the students are doing, to which Yumikawa claims the number of sick children is increasing lately. In response, Kijima asks for which classes in which this is the case. Meanwhile, looking around the infirmary, Sudō starts to feel resentment. With a serious demeanor, Kijima expresses his thoughts of how odd Yūyami High School is, how restless it's become. He expresses his worries that the students, filled with talents, may be lost. Moving Yumikawa with his expressed care for the students, Kijima turns on a jolly face again and accidentally knocks over a coffee cup. Immediately, he turns remorseful as Yumikawa claims it was her fault for leaving out a paper so carelessly. The paper is revealed to be a plane ticket she won at a neighborhood association raffle, a plane ticket for a Queen Airlines flight on seat G7 travelling from Haneda Airport in Tokyo to New Chitose Airport in Sapporo on February 29 at 7:30pm. Sudō notices Kijima stare blankly at the plane ticket. This reveals Sudō's second reason of why he hates him: the fact that Kijima sometimes showed a natural face, one with an indescribable feeling he felt by looking at his eyes. One week later, on November 20 at 5:00pm, it is revealed that Sudō learns of Kijima's cold insanity. A Yūyami High student on their way home from school is attacked by a phantom killer. The suspect fled the scene after stabbing the victim mercilessly. Despite this, the murder case was solved by an anonymous tip from an eyewitness who saw the suspect flee. The suspect's house was found to have a table holding a dangerous weapon with the suspect's fingerprints on it. And so, police arrested Yumikawa for murder. During her arrest, Yumikawa pleads to the police officers that she didn't do anything. Nonetheless, the police escort her to the station. Running up to the police car carrying Yumikawa away with a distressed face, Sudō tries to ask her what happened. A police officer holds him back. Eventually grasping the police officer, he begs to be taken to the police station too to testify her innocence. He claims that Yumikawa was with him at the time of the crime, so there's no way she could've done it, that someone set her up. Telling him this, Sudō begs for him to correct this irrationality. Let go by Sudō, he claims that he is the one lying and is just trying to cover his teacher. Driving off and leaving Sudō behind on the road, the police officer claims they've already heard from the eyewitness, and that he is contradicting the eyewitness. Turning another direction, under a full moon by a streetlight, Sudō encounters Kijima smoking, pitying for Yumikawa's so-called murder in front of him. After Sudō then realizes that he may be the one who framed Yumikawa, Kijima suddenly turns on a lighter face, claiming there's nothing he can do and that he'll be his new advisor. Appalled, Sudō asks Kijima why he gave a false testimony even though he was on a relationship with her. Now with an evil face, Kijima claims that as a teacher, he values his students. Approaching Sudō very closely, he claims he worries about the students who go to the infirmary a lot. Behind Sudō's neck, Kijima grapples onto his back with his hands, exclaiming his overflowing Talent with a blurred face and his right hand revealing the Mysterious Patterned-Hand Person's mark. Kijima then leaves Sudō, wishing him a good night and reminding him of school tomorrow. At this point, Sudō is paralyzed with a fear ten times worse than his stepfather's violence. Later in court, Yumikawa was prosecuted while pleading not guilty during the trial. Meanwhile, Sudō was suspended from school for two weeks for his violence against a police officer. Eventually, he was forced to repeat his school year again. Despite being in despair from his helplessness, Sudō felt more anger than fear everytime he saw Kijima. With this, Sudō declared his own motive to save Ami Yumikawa and get what's "important" to him back. As his motive resonates with the e-test in the present, ǝnígmǝ declares their task over and the elevator doors open. Greeting the three of them are Matsurigi and Kurisu, followed by Moto and Shigeru, relieved. Sumio mentions that Sudō is badly wounded. In response, Matsurigi and Kurisu carry him. Meanwhile, Moto hands Sumio their next password's Problem, which the rest already found when the three were gone: Password No. 1 Starting at 11pm in the Cafeteria Characters in order of appearance #Takemaru Sudō #Sumio Haiba #Hiina Kujōin #Yūta Kijima (flashback) #Ami Yumikawa (flashback) #Aru Mizusawa (flashback) #Jirō Matsurigi #Ryō Kurisu #Shigeru Kurumiya #Moto Hasekura Navigation Category:Chapters